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About the Cooperative

H-GAC and the Cooperative Purchasing Program

The Houston-Galveston Area Council (H-GAC) is the largest of 24 Councils of Government (COG) in Texas, and is a political subdivision of the State of Texas. It has been serving local governments for more than 40 years.

H GAC's Cooperative Purchasing Program, known as HGACBuy, was established pursuant to Texas Interlocal Cooperation Act [Texas Local Government Code, Title 7, Chapter 791]. The Act allows local governments and certain non-profits to contract or agree under the terms of the Act to make purchases or provide purchasing services and other administrative functions appropriately established by another government entity. The Interlocal Contract (ILC) is the required legal document that establishes a link between the End User (local governments and certain non-profits) and HGACBuy, and gives the End User access to HGACBuy contracts.

H-GAC has established Interlocal Contracts with thousands of End Users throughout Texas and across the United States.

HGACBuy contracts are established based on the requirements of [Texas Local Government Code, Chapter 252]. Products and services are contracted after having been subjected to either a competitive bid (IFB) or competitive proposal (RFP) process. Contracts are blanket type, usually for a term of two or three years. Use of HGACBuy for purchases by any End Users is strictly at the discretion of that entity. End Users issue their purchase orders to and pay directly the HGACBuy Contractor.

HGACBuy acts as the designated purchasing agent on behalf of participating End Users by performing specific services including, but not limited to:

Developing specifications for competitive bids and proposals

Soliciting vendor participation

Conducting pre-bid/pre-proposal conferences

Conducting public bid/proposal openings of responses

Evaluating responses and making award recommendations

Executing vendor contracts awarded by the H-GAC Board of Directors

Maintaining contract information available through HGACBuy’s Website

Contract Administration

How to Become a Contractor?

All products and services offered through HGACBuy have been subjected to a competitive bid or proposal process, subsequently resulting in the award of a blanket contract(s). Becoming an HGACBuy Contractor requires that you go through that process with us when we do a procurement for the products and/or services which you offer.

Most of our contracts run for a term of two years, dictating that the procurement process for a product/service is undertaken on that same schedule, i.e. every two years.